Snowflakes
by ScarletPhoenix1
Summary: Two friends have a much needed conversation one early winter night. RHr Dangerously fluffy.


**Snowflakes**

Disclaimer: I own none of it. Kaythanksbye.

A/N: This is a little vignetteish thing I started writing on receipt paper as I was slaving away during a seven and a half hour shift at work on the U-Scan (yay grocery stores!) It is horribly fluffy, so brace yourselves. Please review and let me know what you think. I'd love you forever!

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A solitary snowflake dropped onto Hermione's nose, causing her to blink and look up. The sky was a solid pale gray in color. Hermione imagined that that would be what the air looked like if it were visible. The day had gotten progressively colder as the day wore on and night settled upon them.

"We should probably turn in soon, Ron, it's starting to snow."

"Yeah, just a minute. Let's let the fire die down a bit."

"We could just put it out with magic, you know."

"We could, but where's the fun in that? We're supposed to be _camping_."

Hermione sighed in exasperation, something she did quite often when it came to holding a conversation with Ron.

"Alright, Ron, but if we catch our death, I _will_ hex you."

"Oh come off it. A little snow never hurt anyone. Besides, it's kind of romantic." He said teasingly, wagging his eyebrows up and down.

"Oh please." Hermione was sorry to find her face going red.

They sat in silence for a few long moments; staring at the fire, the snowflakes landing on the logs before melting out with a barely audible hiss. The flames were still licking at the broken tree limbs the boys had collected earlier that afternoon. As the night wore on, however, its intensity was cooling and the wet snow was not hindering the process.

"Ron?" Hermione asked, breaking the silence. "Do you ever wish that we had gone back to Hogwarts?"

Ron looked up at her. Hermione was thinking out loud. His job was just to listen as she sorted her thoughts.

"I mean, we could've been the head boy and girl. You could have kept up with your quidditch . . . We could have . . ." she glanced up at him, her sentence drifting off.

"We had to go with Harry. This is what we were supposed to do. There isn't really much point in thinking about what could have been."

Hermione looked down at her hands, studying her mittens, the threads fraying away around her fingertips. "I know." She replied, quietly.

"_Hermione_, please don't go all sad and quiet on me. I didn't mean that to be as harsh as it sounded."

"No, you're right. It's the truth. I just wish that we could've had more time to just relax, to just grow up and be normal."

Ron raised his eyebrows.

"Wait a minute, _you_ – Hermione Granger, relax?"

Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless.

Ron took a steadying breath before continuing, "Hermione, do you remember last year when you asked me to Slughorn's party?"

Hermione looked up at him again sharply; her heart started beating faster almost instantly.

"That's a bit random, isn't it?"

"I know, but I was just . . . well – why me?"

Hermione watched as he spoke, the words rolled out of his mouth in a puff of frost.

"Well, I thought it might have been fun, you know?" She started fiddling with her mittens again. "Plus, you were always saying what rubbish the slug club was, which made it quite obvious that you were jealous."

Ron had been studying her face as she answered, but now he looked away.

"So," he hesitated, "it wasn't a date?"

Hermione's heart leaped, she hoped dearly that it didn't show.

"Actually, I was kind of hoping . . ." But then she tore her gaze from his, looking off into the woods. "Well, it doesn't really matter now, does it? You ended up with Lavender and I . . . I went with Cormac. Funny how these things work out, isn't it?"

Hermione found herself fighting to keep her voice even against the lump forming in her throat. _Why_ oh why did she still let her self be affected by him, even now nearly a year after that terrible _Lav-Lav_ debacle.

"Hermione, you know why that happened. If Ginny hadn't opened her big mouth, we could've-"

"Well, there isn't much point in dwelling on what could have been, Ron," she said, throwing his words back at him.

"I'm sorry. It's late, I'm going to go to bed," her voice now barely a whisper.

She stood and turned towards the tent Mr. Weasley had lent them.

"No Hermione. Wait, I'm not finished yet."

He reached for her wrist before she could get away. Hermione felt her stomach dip again. She wanted to smack herself. She stood still before turning around and looking at him, her eyes full. Ron gulped, but he didn't take his eyes off of hers, tugging on her wrist to get her to sit down again. She resumed her seat beside him on the log.

"So you want to know why I did all of those idiot things, Hermione?"

Hermione pulled her concentration from his fingers encircling her wrist.

"Back in fourth year, when I saw you at the Yule Ball with Krum, it made me go crazy. I didn't even know why at the time. But after that, every time I pictured, even _thought_ about you being with another bloke it made me almost sick to my stomach." He let go of her to run a shaking hand through his hair, making it stand up in places.

"When Ginny told me that you snogged Krum . . . I was so stupid. I could've . . . I probably did ruin everything."

Hermione feared her heart might run away, it was beating so rapidly.

"What are you saying, Ron?"

"You – I realized that you're the only person that can drive me this mad. I mean, it's always been a little different between the two of us and well . . ." He glanced over at her but quickly looked away again, up towards the towering boughs hanging over them.

"Hermione, I _wanted_ to tell you all of this at Bill and Fleur's wedding while we were still at The Burrow, but I kept talking myself out of it. I was afraid that I'd got it all wrong, that you'd think I was stupid. Maybe you will. But Hermione," he looked over at her, his eyes blazing, yet unsure. Hermione was fairly certain she was going to leap at him or start sobbing at any minute.

"You drive me bloody mental and I think . . . I think I fell in love with you." He finished weakly.

Hermione gave up fighting the tears. Her face collapsed and she found them coursing down her cheeks, warm, contrasting harshly with the bitter November air. Her mind was a buzzing maelstrom of thoughts and emotions – disbelief, relief, pure happiness, elation.

"Oh bugger. I'm sorry. Please don't cry, I'm sorry. It's stupid, I know."

Hermione simply shook her head, "No, no," reaching her arms out to him in a pathetic attempt to reassure him. He scooted closer and she dove into his chest, wrapping her arms up around his back, hanging onto his shoulders for dear life. Hermione had waited so long, years even, for this to finally happen, for them to finally come to the same place and now that it was here she wasn't quite sure what to do. She sat like that for a long while, crying into his shirt. Ron sat there patiently, his hands in her hair.

Finally she looked up at him, hiccoughing slightly.

"The amortentia, last year,"

"Hermione, _what_?" He asked in sheer confusion. What _was_ she on about?

"It was you. Your scent was the other thing I smelled when we were studying Amortentia in Potions."

Ron laughed aloud at this. "You're nutters, you know that right?"

She opened her mouth to retort, but before she could get a word out he was kissing her and they were lost in each other and the snow quietly continued to fall around them.

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End file.
